Effects of Polyester Jerseys on Psycho–physiological Responses during Exercise in a Hot and Moist Environment

Abstract

Gonzales, BR, Hagin, V, Guillot, R, Placet, V, and Groslambert, A. Effects of polyester jerseys on psycho-physiological responses during exercise in a hot and moist environment. J Strength Cond Res 25(12): 3432-3438, 2011-With the general acceptance that extreme environments have a detrimental effect on thermoregulation and human performance, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of 3 polyester jerseys with knits of different sizes on physiological and perceptual responses in trained cyclists during exercise performed in a hot and moist environment. Ten trained male cyclists (mean ± SD, age: 29.1 ± 8 years, height: 177.12 ± 5 cm, body mass: 70.10 ± 6 kg), performed 3 tests of 15 minutes at 150 W on a calibrated home trainer by randomly wearing jerseys with small knits (SK), medium knits, and large knits (LK). While exercising, the jersey and torso skin temperatures, perceived exertion and hotness, and heart rate (HR) were continuously recorded. The major results of this study showed that perceived hotness with LK was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than with SK at minutes 10 (effect size [ES] = 1.18) and 12 (ES = 1.04) of exercise. The torso skin temperature with LK was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than with SK at minute 10 (ES = 0.84) and at minute 14 (ES = 0.81) of exercise, and the LK jersey temperature was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than with SK jerseys at minutes 12 (ES = 0.83) and 14 (ES = 0.90) of exercise. However, no significant difference was found in perceived exertion or HR. These results suggest that the use of polyester jerseys with larger knits could limit the drift of skin temperature and therefore increase the thermal comfort of cyclists during exercise performed in a hot and moist environment. Therefore, coaches are encouraged to take particular care that their athletes wear exercise-appropriate clothing in hot temperatures.

Effects of functional shirts with different fiber compositions on thermoregulation in well-trained runners

“…4,5 During physical activities, the primary thermoregulatory mechanism of heat dissipation is represented by the evaporation of sweat from the skin's surface. 4,6,7 In hot and wet environmental conditions, the effectiveness of this mechanism is limited, resulting in excessive heat production and loss of thermoregulatory balance. 2,8 The associated rise in core temperature is known to negatively affect physical performance.…”

“…2,8 The associated rise in core temperature is known to negatively affect physical performance. 2,7,[9][10][11][12] According to Marino et al, 13 maximal exercise duration is significantly reduced when core temperatures exceed ;40°C, which then leads to premature termination of physical activity. 2 Ultimately, strong core temperature elevations may even result in heat illness -a condition characterized by cramps, exhaustion, heat stroke or even syncope.…”

Thermal body patterns for healthy Brazilian adults (male and female)

“…To adequately interpret thermographic data, a set of internal factors such as age (Falk and Dotan, 2011;Charkovduran, 2010;Niu et al, 2001), gender (Falk and Dotan, 2011), level of fitness (Magalhaes et al 2010;Merla et al, 2005), and external factors including the degree of hydration (Charkovduran, 2010), clothing (Gonzales et al, 2011) or environmental conditions (Moris et al, 2005) should be considered. Furthermore, an appropriate protocol for infrared imaging is crucial to obtain quality thermographic images (Ammer and Ring, 2008).…”

“…Given that age factor (Kolosovas-Machuca and Gonzales, 2011;Niu et al, 2001) is crucial in thermal responses, specific data by gender for well-defined age groups such as children, adolescents, adults and elderly people are required. Therefore, the aims of this study were (a) to establish the T sk data for Brazilian adults and (b) to compare ΔT sk between males and females.…”

Analysis of Wind Data for Sports Performance Design: A Case Study for Sailing Sports

“…Some new researches about team sports [12][13][14], cycling [15], marathons [16,17], water sports [10], effect of materials and apparels on the sport performance [18][19][20] as well as the recent results obtained by Pezzoli et al [11], show that in sports performance analysis it is necessary to work, not only in the well-known areas of "Performance Analysis" ("Motion Analysis", "Match Analysis" and "Notational Analysis"), but also in the area of "Environmental Analysis".…”